


Strictly Confidential

by Yicruz48



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), The Flash (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Bonding, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:21:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23920756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yicruz48/pseuds/Yicruz48
Summary: Takes place right after the events of Pennyworth RIP. Wallace awaits Damian outside of Mercy Hall to attempt to comfort Damian.
Relationships: Damian Wayne/Wally West II
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	Strictly Confidential

**Author's Note:**

> Unsurprisingly, I was frustrated that nobody had ran after Damian after he had walked out crying in Pennyworth RIP. I decided to write sort-of a conclusion to this where Damian was comforted right after the event.
> 
> I hope this satisfies your frustrations for now.

It was chilly, but not cold enough to make him shiver. He only shuddered slightly when he was caught in a path of a cold gust of wind. He stuffed his hands into his sweater.

Wallace took out his phone to look at the time. The phone’s blue light illuminated his face in the dark as he turned it on. It read 12:43 AM. He turned it on as quickly as he turned it off and slipped it back into the pocket of his sweater.

He sighed. He was growing impatient waiting. It was already past midnight, almost 1 in the morning and he hadn’t seen him. _“Maybe he entered through the window”_ , he thought. He didn’t seem to like doors very much-or at least use them as often as an actual human being. He wasn’t exactly your _average_ human being either. But that couldn’t be it, he had been waiting just inside the gates of Mercy Hall near the entrance for nearly two hours and hadn’t heard anything.

 _“Why am I even here”_ , he thought.

He wasn’t even on good terms with Damian. It was just months ago when Damian had fired him from the Teen Titans for working with Deathstroke. They hadn’t really worked out the argument they had about the used-to-be-secret prison deep under his feet. Not to mention Damian’s nasty personality. Yet here he was.

Wallace shook his head and brushed away those thoughts, _“he might not be my friend, but he needs one. Especially right now.”_

Wallace was leaning on the concrete fence near the gate. He looked up at the sign of Mercy hall. The dim lights of the buildings around him shone back at him. It made it clear to see the graffiti that covered the building, he wondered how much time this building had been abandoned before it got to this state. He was stopped mid-thought as he heard footsteps approaching.

Even though he was waiting for two hours now and was expecting Damian any minute now, he was startled. He quickly adjusted himself with his arms crossed in order to make an impression.

The rusty gates of Mercy Hall groaned as Damian pushed them open. Wallace stood there and watched as Damian turned around towards the gates again and creaked them shut, his was face completely emotionless.

Damian pivoted again and approached the doors of the weathered building as Wallace stood there awkwardly. _“Had Damian not noticed him?”_ , now he was really worried. That wasn’t very Damian-like. Damian was quick to react and picked up on anything faster than anyone else in the team. Any hesitation that had existed before about reaching out to Damian quickly vanished and was replaced with concern. 

“Damian,” his words came out intense and heavy, maybe a little too heavy.

Damian halted abruptly, perhaps he was as alarmed as Wallace was when he heard him approaching moments before. He spun around quickly to look at Wallace.

He first caught glimpse of Damian’s glowing green eyes. They carried guilt and sorrow, at least more than usual. His eyes were moist and red, Wallace concluded Damian had taken so long to get back because he was grieving Alfred alone.

Damian was wearing a tuxedo. He looked disheveled. His bow was a little sideways. His white dress shirt spilling on one side of his dress pants. Not to mention Damian’s attire was dirty as if he had been laying on the ground. His hair was extremely unkempt, and Damian wasn’t the type to leave it that way if he could avoid it. He had dignity in his looks, at least that was what Wallace thought.

“What are you doing here Wallace?” Damian interrogated as his brows immediately furrowed the moment he caught glimpse of him. Damian wore his signature scowl although it was more severe than usual.

“It was getting late, I was worried you know, maybe you were in trouble-”

“I am highly capable of taking care of myself Wallace,” his stern words cut through the air, “besides it isn’t the first time I arrive this late. Now tell me, why are you here?” Damian demanded.

Of course, he would see through his lie. Wallace was hoping Damian would slowly confess it himself even though Damian wasn’t the type of person to express his feelings. He would have to bring it up himself, he wasn’t looking forward to this.

“I heard…about Alfred…Barry mentioned it.” That was also a lie, Wallace had overheard Damian talking to Bruce over the phone about the hospital opening in Gotham in name of Alfred. If he told Damian that, he would he think Wallace was spying on him and trust him even less then he already did.

Damian glanced sideways, “I’m fine.” His words came out confident and strong, but Wallace knew enough about Damian to know that was just a facade to cover up what he was actually feeling. Plus as he said it, Wallace noticed Damian squeezing his fingers into a fist as if to somehow concentrate all his emotions there instead. As a matter of fact, now that he looked at Damian’s fists they were bloody. He had punched _something_ or _someone_.

Damian swirled around and set off to the doors again. Wallace instinctively grabbed his shoulder to pull him back, he wasn’t gonna let Damian wallow in self-pity. He had to maintain a hard grip on his shoulder to keep him from leaving, “Dude, you aren’t ‘fine’. How can you be?! Alfred HAD to mean something to you! I bet your butler took care of you more than your Dad-”

Damian snapped his head back towards him, and forcefully pushed Wallace’s hand off his shoulder. A shadow covered most of Damian’s face, his eyes gleamed in the darkness with irritation and grief. “I SAID I WAS FINE WALLACE. And Alfred isn’t a butl-nevermind,” he paused as if to curse himself out for letting himself show his true emotions, “I have some files I need to review before our mission tomorrow, so leave me be.”

Wallace hesitated and then gave up with another sigh. He stood outside for a few minutes before entering.

He guessed that he would have to let Damian wallow in self-pity after all.

Wallace was waiting for this moment for days. Red Arrow had gone back to Seattle for the weekend, he guessed she was feeling homesick. Roundhouse had just minutes ago went to the bookstore downtown to stock up on some manga, Wallace knew he would be there for hours. And Crush and Djinn went to get groceries, they would also take a while. Crush always got caught up taking Djinn sight-seeing to spend more time with her and Djinn obliviously followed.

But now that the time had come, he was reluctant. He was far too tired from the missions they had the past few days and was eager to fall into his bed and scroll mindlessly through social media. Also, Damian wasn’t the most exciting person to hang around. He could barely stand him these few days and all he wanted to do was stay as far away from him as possible. He could still hear Damian’s past snarky remarks ringing in his head from the previous days.

 _“Idiot! Why did you let him get away?! I selected you to be apart of this group because you were fast, yet you let him out your sight!”_ That was just one of the many comments Damian had made at Wallace.

But that was exactly why he couldn’t let leave Damian alone. Damian was projecting his grief through anger and violence more recently. The criminals falling the most victim to it. The team had just about had it with Damian’s attitude last night, Damian’s anguish was tearing the team apart as if they weren’t already dysfunctional to begin with.

Wallace made it down the hall, passing the dorms of his other teammates and each step closer hearing fists punching worn leather even louder. The sun peaked through the graffiti stained windows of Mercy hall. It looked almost serene, but it wasn’t, and it was just going to start looking grimmer.

He stopped at the door that leads to their makeshift gym. He wavered, _“was he really going to try again as if his first encounter had gone as planned?”_

 _Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!_ , Wallace now could clearly hear Damian pounding the punching bag out of existence. He turned the knob to reveal to a sweat-covered Damian straining to continue bashing the poor punching bag. He was almost was more concerned about the punching bag than Damian.

Through the corner of Damian’s eye, he spotted Wallace but continued hitting. It had confirmed something for Wallace, Damian wasn’t gonna make an effort to communicate with him, he would have to.

Wallace walked up to the punching bag next to Damian and joined him. The sound of their fists hammering their punching bags echoed off the walls. It was like that for another 30 minutes until Wallace found the courage to try to communicate with Damian again.

“You’ve been here since six in the morning. Aren’t you tired?” Wallace vocalized over their fists hitting leather. Wallace’s fists were already sore, he didn’t understand how Damian had been doing this for hours.

Damian didn’t respond. Wallace knew Damian was playing dumb. Damian _knew_ why he was here. He knew why Wallace decided to join him when no one seemed to care or notice his frustration but wasn’t too interested to find out.

Wallace had enough, he was tired of playing nice. And he was gonna make Damian tell him. He was tired of Damian brooding on his own. He wouldn’t let him become like his old man. Wallace quickly stepped in front of Damian just in time to grab his receiving punch. “QUIT IT!” Wallace yelled.

After he said it, he immediately flinched readying himself for a reaction from Damian.

Damian instead frowned, his eyes filled with anger. He pulled his fist from Wallace’s grip and walked a few steps forward away from Wallace before sitting down on the floor and pushing himself through sit-ups. He remained non-verbal, but his presence said otherwise.

Sweat continued to bead down his face and fall on the mat as his back touched the floor. His workout gear was doused in sweat. The dumb ass was gonna pass out of exhaustion before Wallace even got his next words out.

Wallace headed over towards the mini-fridge nearby and grabbed two water bottles. One for him, and one for the asshole on the floor doing sit-ups.

He continued to propel thoughts of giving up to the back of his head. He would try again, again, and again until Damian talked to him.

He threw the water bottle into Damian’s lap as he sat up in the middle of his sit up, “At least drink some water,” spouted Wallace. Damian threw another glare at him but accepted the cold refreshment.

Wallace opened his water bottle and chugged it down as Damian guardedly opened his own. There were a few moments of silence beside the sound of them drinking their water.

Wallace wondered how many more heavy moments of silence he would have endured until Damian was going to talk. He was already thinking of going back to his-

Suddenly, Damian unexpectedly broke the ice, “Alfred believed himself a genius but ultimately let himself be caught by Bane,” Damian paused, Wallace couldn’t tell if he did it to catch a breath or to think about what to say next, “he made himself vulnerable, and Bane took the opportunity to kill him. He should’ve tried to escape, he was skilled enough to do so. Yet he remained at my presence although I could’ve handled Bane or Thomas myself.”

Damian looked down at the label of his empty water bottle as he toyed with it in his hands. Wallace could’ve sworn he could hear ants marching nearby, it was that silent. He sat through _another_ moment of silence, but remained quiet, he was making progress, Damian was talking.

Wallace sat next to Damian, and as if to cue him in, Damian proceeded where he left off, “After Dick…Dick lost his memories, I thought myself…unaccompanied,” Wallace could see how hard Damian was straining to express himself, “fortunately, I wasn’t, Alfred was there. Alfred constantly tried to sneak trackers on me every time I left Gotham,” a hint of a smirk tickled at the corner of his mouth, “But of course I always noticed them even before leaving the manor, but his effort was appreciated,” Damian stared squarely at the concrete wall facing them.

Wallace joined him, he also stared blankly at the wall. The silence wasn’t as suffocating anymore, and Damian’s presence wasn’t as defensive or over-guarded. Wallace started to relax around Damian as well.

What Damian said might’ve come across as incoherent rambling with no focus, but Wallace understood was he was trying to say-or avoid admitting.

Damian was frustrated, angry, mourning-experiencing a concoction of emotions. But most predominantly, feeling alone. A few months ago he lost Dick, Wallace knew because Wally had brought it up in one of their conversations. And now Damian had lost Alfred. Wallace figured that Alfred couldn’t fill the shoes of Dick, but it was enough to keep Damian in his place. But Alfred was now gone too.

Batman hadn’t checked on Damian for months and from what little Damian had brought up about Batman, it seemed like they weren’t seeing each other eye-to-eye either. So Wallace guessed Batman wasn’t exactly a spot of comfort for Damian and from what Wallace had heard going on Gotham he wasn’t the best influence for Damian to be around anyways.

“I’m sorry man, I guess your feeling alone, right? You lost the people who you trusted the most.” Wallace said as he continued to look at the concrete wall. He could’ve looked at Damian as he said this, but Wallace was talking about something sentimental and personal to Damian, and Damian didn’t do any of that. And honestly, he was a little terrified of how Damian would take his response even though it was apologetic.

Wallace sneaked a glance anyways, Damian continued to look at the wall and blinked twice. As if his brain was grinding its gears attempting to take in the compassion it just received. Damian’s face contorted into a grimace as he turned to look at Wallace.

“Why am I disclosing this with _you_?” Damian spat as he picked himself off the mat and took his first step towards the door. He held back mid-step and looked back at Wallace.

He glowered back at him and walked back to where Wallace sat. Damian stood in front of him in his alpha male stance. Shoulders back, chest puffed like he owned the place, well, he did-but that wasn’t the point.

Damian had slipped back into his fierce and lethal persona yet again, “What we discussed today Wallace was strictly confidential,” Damian said with his hands on hips as he bent down to Wallace’s eye level. He lifted a finger at him, “if you speak to anyone about this, I will not hesitate to kick you off the team again, got it?”

Wallace was trying so hard to hold back his laughter. Seeing how much Damian was worked up simply because he got all mushy with him was hilarious. Wallace would not forget this moment. He was afraid of laughing, it took a lot of willpower to contain his laughter, so he settled for a nod instead.

Damian backed off, and looked at the ceiling like an electrician trying to figure out a problem with the wiring and then looked down at Wallace again, “I need to get ready for our briefing today for our mission tomorrow. I would work on your stance till then, your shoulders were too tense and your core wasn’t engaged enough,” Damian jabbed as he finally took off.

The moment Damian exited the gym, Roundhouse entered with a stack of manga in his hands. He looked back at Damian stomping out of sight. He looked at Wallace perplexed, “I just got back,” he got closer to Wallace and whispered as if Damian was still in the room, “…what happened between you and Robin while I was out?”

Wallace outstretched his hand, Roundhouse quickly pulled Wallace up to his feet with his free hand, “Can’t tell you, it's strictly confidential,” he said mimicking Damian’s know-it-all attitude.

Wallace picked up his and Damian’s water bottle and threw it into the trash nearby. He smiled at Roundhouse, and then looked at the manga in his hands, he took a few off, “let me help you take these to your room.”

Roundhouse smiled back, “Thanks dude! I knew I could always depend on you!”

They both walked out of the gym, into the halls, and towards Roundhouse’s bedroom.

Roundhouse beamed confidently at Wallace, “Guess what?” Roundhouse started, “I got one of these bad boys for only 2 bucks! My haggling skills…” Roundhouse’s voice trailed off as Wallace became preoccupied with the conversation he had only seconds ago with Damian.

He couldn’t help but smile brightly, he had been working with Damian for almost a year and Damian had finally started opening up to him. And all it took was throwing a water bottle at the guy.

Damian definitely didn’t tell him everything that had happened at the ceremony. He was hiding something, withholding information from him. But Wallace got something out of him nonetheless.

“Wallace! Are you listening to me?!” Roundhouse looked slightly upset and offended by Wallace’s ignorance of their conversation.

“I heard you loud and clear.”

**Author's Note:**

> I would strongly appreciate your feedback if you have time, thank you.


End file.
